Millennial Reality: No Retirement, Making Our Own End

The old paradigm for a career was work 20 years, grab a pension, and retire. With a strong imagination, maybe setting off to a warm place, like Florida. Does that exist today? No, no it does not. Not for millennials, anyhow. Not for the average millennial. (Yes, there are always exceptions to what this generation is capable of.)

Sadly, it seems like retirement will be apart of the history books read in schools; stories about the Unions, about general labor jobs, teachers, police officers, and people who worked and paid into something, so they could enjoy the end of their lives, work-free. They will become an archetype talked about when gleaming about the good ol’ days. “Oh, those retirees were so care-free back then,” they’ll say.

It seems millennials won’t have that pleasure to be talked about so frivolously.

With recent statistics saying that most millennials won’t see retirement until the age of 75, why would anyone still believe that we should partake in this old paradigm, and continue to work a single position for so long?  The incentive is gone—retirement and pension—and now, thankfully, we finally have a true, statistical testament to why this generation is going to be so entrepreneurial. We have no choice, it seems. We truly have to create our own end.

This no-retirement realization is just the most recent calamity in the often-viewed “radical” millennial mindset. But, our radical, unconventional, modern spin to approaching the world is only a product of the current world we have been presented with. That world, filled with massive student debt, high living costs, and distrust in the political realms we have been told to procure, has given us no other option, but to fend for ourselves. With no retirement in the future, we can see our potential as boundless.

We don’t have to be locked into a position for so long, and to some, that’s seen as a curse, but many of us see it as a blessing.

If you present the 75-year statistic to most millennials, they would shrug it off. It’s nothing we haven’t known, or embraced already. The world, financially speaking, is going to be a cruel ride for most, but again, the entrepreneurial spirit we are defined by is going to be our saving grace.

We could go work for a company for 20 years, and some will, but others will scurry around, doing what makes them happy for a long time to come. Even the oldest millennials in their 30’s are still scrounging for what happens next.

There is an arching philosophy–an important aspect to millennials when it comes to a long-term career–which is having our own social impact and thus, impact on our own lives. Many of us want to do good for others, so we can do better for ourselves. It’s not selfish, but it is the stem of our ability to be so entrepreneurial. In other words, why create, work, and support or someone else’s impact when we can have our own.

From here, it may be an all out race to actually make our own. Who, what, where, when, and how is going to be our primary focus for success. It’s not being in an office for 20 years, anymore. Today, and from now on, it seems we will be focusing less on the bigger picture of retirement, and more on the smaller pictures that help makeup our ever-changing, unforeseen futures.